Apples for Health- Teen summer jobs may help avert suicides

Teen summer jobs may help avert suicides

IOWA CITY, Iowa, March 26 (UPI) -- University of Iowa researchers suggest that summer jobs may help prevent suicidal tendencies in at-risk teens.

Study author Rob Baller, an associate professor of sociology, and Kelly Richardson, a data analyst at the Iowa City VA Medical Center, find that when a friend of a friend attempts suicide, at-risk teens are more likely to seriously consider doing so.

Summer employment is more of a deterrent than holding a job during the school year, attending church, participating in sports or living in a two-parent home, Baller says.

"Summer employment is thought to be beneficial because it creates self-esteem while reducing isolation and substance abuse, and it does not conflict with school work in the way a job during the school year could," Baller says in a statement.

Risk factors for teen suicide include heavy alcohol consumption, physical fights, obesity, same-sex attraction and rape victimization, the researchers say.

The study, scheduled to the published in the September issue of the Journal of Health and Social Behavior, finds that among adolescents with more of these risk factors, working a paid summer job 20 or more hours a week creates immunity against the friend-to-friend diffusion of suicidal thoughts and behaviors. At-risk teens who are 16 or younger can work just 10 hours a week in the summer to reap the same benefit.